1 Response to A National Symposium on Tax Reform, October 25-26, 2012 at COB

1. Tradewinds says:

   September 6, 2012 at 1:59 pm

   Wow this is somewhat scary.. Are there any qualified economists that specialize in public finance and fiscal policy invited to participate?? Or is this going to be more of the same experts with little if any definable expertise..
   Has any one ever tried to figure out what the effective tax rate is for the average Bahamian citizen?? Lets give it a layman’s try.. As most Bahamian have little to no real savings so we can assume that the average duty rate is close to the effective tax rate which is higher than forty percent.. As people with no savings tend to spend almost their entire wage check on goods, services and other living expenses, it can be reasonably assumed that forty percent of the pay check has been used to pay duty on goods purchased and consumed.. Therefore, it can be inferred that the average net effective tax rate for the average Bahamian citizen exceeds 40 percent.. Wow, that is higher than I expected.. If this is the case, a forty percent tax rate is unfair and a far to high tax burden than any Bahamian should have to pay..
   Now the so-called experts are calling for a Value-Added Tax to raise more revenues for the government.. One has to question what real value is added to goods and services that can be truly called a beneficial added value.. VAT in actuality is just another form of tax increase..
   Lets hope that some of these questions will be addressed at the forth coming symposium on tax reform.. We shall see..

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